One Nation: Patriots and Pirates Portrayed by N. C. Wyeth and Jamie Wyeth

The history of America in the twentieth century – full of innocence and deceit, promise and disappointment – has been chronicled by two members of the most famous family of artists in America, the Wyeths. N. C. Wyeth (1882-1945), renowned illustrator and patriarch of the Wyeth artistic dynasty, created images that reflected American idealism. Along with his paintings of the founding fathers and nineteenth-century American heroes, he produced stirring images of Uncle Sam and the brave fighting troops of World War I and World War II, with the American flag flying gallantly overhead. N. C. Wyeth was, in fact, creating the symbol of patriotism for an era. By the time James Wyeth (b. 1946), N.C. Wyeth’s grandson, came of age in the 1960s – one of the most tumultuous decades of the century – the country was once again at war, but to some, “patriotism” no longer meant marching off to battle but rather marching in protest. Vietnam and Watergate changed the attitudes of the American public, and James Wyeth witnessed and recorded these events in his paintings and sketches. The movement away from idealism can be seen in his work, from his telling portrait of a defiant youth, Draft Age, to his controversial posthumous portrait of President John F. Kennedy, shown vulnerable in a moment of indecision. With essays by Tom Brokaw on America’s changing view of patriotism and David Michaelis on the lives of the two artists, and an introduction by Lauren Raye Smith, One Nation traces the shifting ideals of patriotism through the eyes of these two artists, showing that the role of the artist is a powerful one in shaping the public perception of momentous events. –BOOK JACKET.